Slamming Doors
by Pilla Jeffrey
Summary: Adele Webber knew the whole time. And now she’s had enough. Post Wishin' and Hopin'. Chapter Three: Thatcher's eyes glowed. They could have an affair. They could be whole instead of a lingering half.
1. The End and The Beginning

TITLE: Slamming Doors  
AUTHOR: Pilla Jeffrey  
CATEGORY: Missing Scene/Epilogue, Thoughts, Drama, Angst  
PAIRING: Richard/Adele, Ellis/Richard, Ellis/Thatcher  
SPOILERS: Up until "Wishin' and Hopin'"  
RATING: PG-13  
CONTENT WARNINGS: sexual references  
SUMMARY: Adele knew the whole time. And now she's had enough.  
STATUS: Work In Progress  
ARCHIVE: anywhere else, ask.  
DISCLAIMER: Since I own _Grey's Anatomy_, you all saw that episode with McSteamy and Alex wrestling in pudding, right? Obviously, I kid and do not own.  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I think, perhaps without a doubt, that the mirroring of the Ellis/Thatcher/Richard/Adele love rectangle with the Meredith/Finn/Derek/Addison one is the most compelling relationship aspect of _Grey's Anatomy_. I think the focus too often by the fans is with Meredith and Derek and Ellis and Richard, but I admire Adele. I admire her courage to stay with her man and then leave him. In the same way that people wanted to hate Addison but ended up loving her, Adele mirrors that. Her story needs to be told.

P.S. I'm trying hard to get years and ages and colleges and such correct, but if I slip up, tell me so I can fix it.

* * *

**Chapter One: The End and the Beginning **

When Adele Webber found out that her husband was cheating on her, she was wrapped in his arms while they were watching _Cheers_. It was her favorite show; he dealt with it as a doting husband should. He had his first night off in weeks and had promised to spend it with her. Just the two of them. Adele and Richard. Richard and Adele.

Just as Sam was about to make a sassy comment to Norm, the phone rang. Richard got up to answer. Adele sat up and turned the volume down, listening intently. No. Not tonight. He was free tonight. Seattle Grace wasn't about to take him again.

"Now? But—Ellis, I—now? I can't—Yes. I know. It's not—You—Yes. I'll be there. I'm coming."

Adele's heart constricted, her lip quivering slightly in anger. How dare they need him now. Fifteen hour shifts every day. For weeks. Their marriage had barely survived medical school. This internship, three months in, was little better.

He'd promised. He'd promised it get better. That the hours would get more flexible. But now, instead of studying for hours—something she could usually pry him away from for an hour or two of time in the bedroom—he was several miles away at a hospital saving lives. Leaving her alone.

Sometimes she laughed it off. "You're never around. Maybe I should find someone else for company."

To which he always responded, "I'm doing my best. And don't you dare."

Richard entered the room. "That was the hospital. There's been an accident."

Adele got up and wrapped her arms around Richard. "But tonight's your night off," she whispered into his ear, holding him tighter.

"I've got to go." He unhooked her hands from around his neck and started toward the door, grabbing his coat and bag.

"You know, I have half a mind to call up Steven tonight for some fun," she shouted after him, joking.

Silence. The sound of a bag being zippered and the door being slammed shut.

It was then, in the silence, that she knew that he was no longer hers.

* * *

Sometimes Adele missed Chicago. She grew up there, went to college there. It was while she was attending DePaul University when Tiffany, her sorority sister, brought her to a party for med students at Northwestern. The moment she entered, she saw him. Tall, handsome, with dark hair and smooth skin. His eyes were warm, but commanding. Adele melted. This was love at first sight.

If she had been in her right mind, she would have approached him easily. Adele always got her man. She got her way. And suddenly, without any preparation, she was reduced to a trembling, weak mess.

Tiffany noticed Adele's sudden hesitation in movement and immediately sensed what was going on. Quickly, efficiently, she got them two drinks and worked their way next to Richard and the gaggle of half-inebriated future surgeons around him. Suddenly, she pushed Adele into him, her drink sloshing all over his pants.

Adele felt her face flush as a trying smile crossed her lips. She was going to kill Tiffany. Delta Sigma Theta rules or not.

Quickly, though, Adele recovered from her shock. "Oh my God, I am so sorry." She picked up a napkin. "I can clean that for you. Dry-clean it even." A real smile this time.

He took her napkin. "Honest mistake. It's fine."

She extended her hand. "I'm Adele Burton."

His lips twitched at the edges and he took her hand. "Richard Webber."

It was that smile that glittered in his eyes and tickled his lips that caused her to accept his proposal of marriage a year later. It was that smile that caused her to give up Chicago. It caused her to give up her home, her life. And she had never regretted it. Never. Not until he left her with nothing but old memories and the slam of a door.

* * *

**Like, dislike? Hungry for some more Adele/Richard/Ellis action? Review and tell me!**


	2. Ellis Grey

**Thanks to all those who reviewed. It seems that I was right when I thought that people rarely think about Adele/Richard/Ellis, especially from Adele's POV. This spurs me on, it does, indeed.

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**

**Chapter Two: Ellis Grey **

Richard Webber was a smart man. He never had lipstick on his collar or love notes in his bag. He never smelled of another woman or had remarkable expenditures in their banking account. He never had another woman's trinkets in his drawers or panties in his pockets. So, for the longest time, Adele doubted her relentless feelings of his infidelity. She didn't even know with whom Richard would cheat on her. It was almost unholy and certainly unnatural how many attractive interns there were at Seattle Grace, and Richard was friends with all of them.

There was Kelley Bart, the tall, lanky blonde with piercing aqua eyes. Or there was Julie Sanchez, the exotic aspiring neurosurgeon. Or even Hannah Lewis, the girl-next-door with the alcoholic appetite of a trucker.

And then there was always Ellis Grey. Married with a two-month-old daughter. Her husband, Thatcher, was a fumbling, but charming man. Adele met him at a mixer for the interns. It seemed strange that such an intense, focused woman as Ellis would be married to someone so unstructured. But the way he looked at her, she could tell he was head-over-heels in love with her. As for Ellis, she seemed to put on a front of not caring, but Adele doubted it.

She sensed a kinship between the Greys and Richard and herself. Both couples married while one member was in medical school. Both moved to Seattle to participate in one of the best residency programs in the nation. She and Thatcher were married to people who were married to their jobs. She saw her own love for Richard in Thatcher's eyes as he followed Ellis' movements across the floor. Thatcher balanced Ellis. Ellis was too strong, too fierce, too determined. Thatcher was calm, loving, and sweet. Their interaction, if slightly bittersweet, was true to a married couple.

It amazed her that Ellis managed to give birth and raise a girl while she was completing residency. Adele could barely keep her marriage together at times. She couldn't imagine what it would be like with a child.

She admired Ellis Grey. If Ellis' marriage could survive, so could Adele's.

* * *

One day she decided to make him lunch. A good lunch. A BLT on crusty bread, homemade potato salad, chocolate pudding cake. And so she set off for Seattle Grace.

She told herself, as she drove, that she was doing so to surprise her husband. To remind him of the good times and how much she cared for him. To her, it seemed like a perfectly legitimate reason to take time out of her workday at Walt Whitman High School. But surreptitiously, she suspected that there was more to it than that that her subconscious didn't want her to be aware of at that moment.

She reached Seattle Grace soon enough. The first person she saw that she recognized was Greg "Pritch" Pritchard. He was cocky and gossipy and definitely one of her husband's least favorite people.

"Greg!" she called out, approaching him. "It's me. Adele Webber."

A faint, knowing smile crossed his lips. "Yes. Adele. Rick's wife." Richard hated nicknames.

"Do you know where Richard is? I made him lunch."

Adele saw the machinery whiz in Pritchard's head. He was calculating.

"Do you?" she repeated.

"I think he's in OR One with Dr. Pickens."

"When will he be done?"

"I don't know. Five?"

There was something wrong with Pritchard's answers and Adele's heart began to tremble. At least, she thought there was something wrong. Perhaps she was just being paranoid. "Well, then, where can I drop this off?" she asked evenly, gesturing to the paper bag.

"Uh—I could take it," Greg said. Cheekily.

Adele shook her head, her confident grin betraying nothing. "Could I drop it off in his locker?"

Pritchard hesitated for a second but recovered. "Sure. I'll show you were it is."

The locker room was perhaps the only slightly-homey area in the hospital. Not completely sterile. Just human. Surgeons often forgot that they were human.

"Thanks," she nodded at Pritchard, who smiled audaciously and left.

Richard's locker had a lock on it. But, as his wife, she knew the combination that he used for everything.

She opened the locker. Jacket. Shirt. Pants. Shoes. Briefcase. And there, fallen on top of all of this, was a small folded piece of paper which looked like it had been pushed through the slits of the locker front.

Her fingers grabbed it without a moment to think or to mentally prepare herself.

_Richard,_

_Dinner? After dealing with Pickens for three hours, I think we'll need it. _

_ Thatcher and Meredith are at his parents' for the weekend. Meet me at my house around seven? Tell Adele surgery is running late. _

_ --Ellis_

Adele mindlessly closed the letter and put it back. She shut the locker and went straight out to her car. Her mind and heart were blank. She thought she'd be angry. Tearful. _Something_. But she couldn't work out of her shock.

When Richard called her around six and told her that surgery was running late and that she should eat dinner without him, she didn't say anything to give her knowledge away. When she hung up, she sat down on the kitchen floor and cried. She hurt her fist as she slammed it back against the wall, crying harder.

She would keep this inside. She loved Richard. So much that her entire being felt like it was being ripped apart. At least this way, he was still legally hers. If she exposed their relationship, he would be forced to choose. And he might not choose her.

That, Adele decided, would hurt more than this affair ever could.

* * *

**Adele now knows that Richard's with Ellis. What does that mean for her? And what about Thatcher?**

**Please review!**


	3. Thatcher Grey

_A/N: I haven't watched this season at all (Addison was my favorite character, followed closely by Burke, and I hate Gizzie with a passion), but I still have a soft spot for Richard and Adele. And who better to shake things up than Thatcher?_**  
**

**Chapter Three: Thatcher Grey**

"Hello, Adele."

She turned around. "Thatcher. How are you doing?"

Thatcher Grey stood behind her, holding a sleeping Meredith. She was propped up on his shoulder, lying still in his arms. His warm eyes crinkled as he gave a trying smile. "Same as you." He looked up at the board. "What's Richard in?"

"Brain tumor. With Ellis. It'll be a few hours."

"Ah."

They exchanged a look.

"Meredith's gotten so big," Adele offered. "How old is she?"

"Two." He stroked her wispy light-brown hair as she snuggled deeper into the crevasse of his neck. "Isn't it hard to believe we've been here for two years? This internship, I mean. Here at Seattle Grace." He sighed. "Two years."

"Two years," she repeated. Two years she and Thatcher had been seeing each other at this board. Two years they had been silent. Two years they had been cuckolds.

When Adele was in high school, she dated Kevin Bernard Jr. He was handsome, charming, and the captain of the baseball team. He was also dating half of the cheerleading squad. When Adele found out, she slapped him so hard that his jaw was dislocated and then burned all of his gifts and belongings. She didn't suffer quietly. She was proactive.

At the time, Adele thought that Kevin was the love of her life. In retrospect, he was an insignificant blip. Richard was her soul mate. No matter how much it pained her to think of him with Ellis, she couldn't burn him out of her life. She couldn't be proactive. She would just turn her eyes from this and ignore.

No one else knew. She didn't even know if Thatcher knew, although she suspected he did. Ellis, as far as Adele could tell, flaunted her affair. The way the nurses and doctors looked at Thatcher, pityingly, was evidence enough.

They didn't give Adele the same look. She was Richard Webber, the golden child's, wife. Perhaps they suspected that he was cheating on her, but they didn't show it openly.

Thatcher shifted Meredith onto the opposite shoulder, the small girl emitting a high-pitched, gentle yawn. "Do you want to go to the cafeteria and get a drink? Coffee?" Thatcher was a kind man. There was no other way to describe him.

Adele smiled. "Of course, Thatcher."

Thatcher wouldn't even let her pay for her latte. "My wife's a doctor," he jokingly confided, slipping the cashier a ten. They sat at a small, rounded table, each sipping their drinks while Meredith sat in a booster seat, shaking around her apple juice box, giggling.

"Meredith. You're making a mess," Thatcher lightly scolded her, cleaning up the spilt juice. Meredith just giggled more. Adele looked at the her. She was beautiful.

Adele always wanted a child. She loved children. That's why she became a teacher. But now, with Richard never at home whether because of work or Ellis, she couldn't bear bringing a child into the world. She wouldn't be a single parent.

"So…how's teaching high schoolers? Gratifying or draining?"

Richard never asked her about work. "A mixed bag," she answered. "Good kids and bad kids. We're currently reading _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_."

"I love that book. When I was growing up here, I always imagined that the ferry boats were like Huck and Jim's raft." Thatcher's face lit up in remembrance.

Adele liked Thatcher. Whether it was because he was her fellow pained spouse or because he was a genuinely lovely man, she didn't know. But as the affair grew longer, she had taken to confide in Thatcher more than she would in her husband. He, in turn, had done the same.

When Richard and Ellis didn't get out of surgery by six, Thatcher offered to take Adele out to dinner. She said yes. Meredith, of course, wanted McDonald's, so there they went. Over Adele's Quarter Pounder, Thatcher's Big Mac, and Meredith's Chicken McNuggets, the three of them had a fine night on the town, giggling and chatting. For the first time in a long while, Adele felt like she was part of a family.

When they got back to the hospital, it was around eight. Thatcher and Adele got out of Thatcher's car. Meredith was sleeping soundly in the safety seat.

As they were about to enter Seattle Grace, Thatcher pulled Adele back, stopping her for a second. His eyes glowed. She could see it in his eyes. They could have an affair. Get Richard and Ellis jealous. They could keep each other company all of these lonely nights which they spent alone. They could be whole instead of a lingering half.

Adele was surprised by how tempted she was just to kiss Thatcher. To get back at Richard. To be in a truly loving relationship with a kind man who was not ruled by his job.

But she loved Richard. No matter what. Till death did them part.

Adele smiled slightly and shook her head. "You don't want this, Thatcher. We're better than that. We're better than them."

Thatcher mimicked her smile. "Yeah." His eyes were glossy. "You're right."

* * *

**Thatcher-licious! Like, dislike? Review and tell me!**


	4. The Truth

**A/N: **Since I no longer watch_ Grey's_ (we can thank Gizzie and the absence of my two favorite characters, Addison and Burke, for that), I had lost interest in this fic. But I've returned and it's a different sort of compelling now. It makes me think of the good years.

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Truth**

One night, in bed, Richard turned off _Cheers_. "Adele," he asked, "Do you ever regret…anything?"

Adele pursed her lips, picking her words very, very carefully. "Of course. Everyone does. But not the important decisions." She paused. "Do you?"

He looked at her. His eyes searched hers, and then her entire body, returning to her eyes. "Not the important ones," he answered. With that, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "I love you," he whispered.

Just as suddenly as it had begun, the affair had ended. And Adele knew.

* * *

It was time for Richard's fellowship. His residency at Seattle Grace was about to end and Adele, for one, was excited. She was hoping he'd take a job back in Chicago. Not that she didn't like Seattle. But it just wasn't home.

Richard didn't talk about where Ellis was going and Adele didn't dare ask. Richard had chosen her, but he obviously was very much in pain for however his affair ended. Richard had never been much of a drinker; he never even kicked back with a beer with the frequency that the average adult male would. But as the fellowship drew near and the five-year affair died, Richard began to come home later in the night, smelling of alcohol.

Adele said nothing. He was stressed. And, really, what could she do?

* * *

When Richard told her that he was going to take the fellowship in New York, Adele was disappointed, but also excited. She had never been to New York. It seemed so cosmopolitan, so international.

When they got to the airport, Richard decided to go to get a drink before waiting at the gate. Adele decided to get herself a sandwich. As she neared the generic airport bistro, she saw him.

"Thatcher. Thatcher Nicholas Grey!" she shouted happily. "I have not seen you in ages!"

He turned. "Adele! How are you?" he grinned as they hugged in greeting.

"I'm doing great. Going to New York. Richard's fellowship." She paused. "Is that why you're here? You and Ellis—"

"No." The answer was firm. "Ellis and I got divorced."

Adele was shocked. Surely Richard would have told her. "Thatcher. I'm so sorry."

He chuckled weakly. "Don't be. I left her."

Adele was still waiting for all of this to sink in. "What about Meredith?"

"Ellis has her. They just moved to Boston for Ellis's fellowship. I—I wanted joint custody, but Ellis refused. Said I wasn't a fit father. Since I wasn't working at the time." He breathed deeply. "But I am now. After five years of being a stay-at-home dad, I'm back at my old firm."

"You and your accounting," Adele teased. "You're too good with numbers."

"I try."

Adele tried to lay her next question delicately. "So, what about Meredith now? Are you going to fight for custody?"

Thatcher's expression broke. "I want to. I want to. I miss her every day. But Ellis—"

"Screw Ellis! She's more your daughter than Ellis's any day. She cheated on you."

"It's not that easy. I'm…engaged."

"What?!"

"She's a woman I met at work. She's lovely. So caring. And Ellis…she already didn't get Richard…"

Adele's eyes flashed. "What?"

Thatcher seemed to be trying to say his response as emotionlessly as possible. "She…asked him to leave you for her. She started telling me how the two of them were going to be together and I just left. Before she had the chance to _dare_ to kick me out.

"She didn't want Meredith. All she wanted was Richard. And then he picked you and I got engaged and she's alone except for Mer. I can't take her away from Ellis as well. She'll have nothing."

"She _deserves_ nothing," Adele spat out, scathingly.

Thatcher shook his head slowly. "I still love her, you know?" he muttered. "It's just…I can't forgive her. I can't deal with her mood swings and judgments anymore. I can't be with a woman who doesn't love me." He gave Adele a sad smile. "I don't even get to see her or hear from her. Our lawyers are the only ones talking."

Adele touched his arm softly before enveloping him in a hug. "Oh, Thatcher. She isn't worth half of you."

She could feel Thatcher's chest rise as he took a deep, composing breath. "I wish I believed that."

As they parted, Adele had a sense that the Greys were not altogether gone from her life. But the feeling came and passed and Adele moved on.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Richard's interns (Derek and Addison Fun!), alcoholism, and more!  
**

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